


I’d risk it all

by thegirlwiththerainboweyes



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Ending rewritten, M/M, Trance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 21:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13983357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththerainboweyes/pseuds/thegirlwiththerainboweyes
Summary: What if Bill was taken instead of Beverly before the final confrontation? What if Richie fought to get him back?“There was Bill on the door. His name, his age, his photo, and the last seen date was two days before. Richie couldn’t breathe, something had been pulling him to Bill’s house, something wanted him to know that Bill was missing. It wanted Richie to know what happened to people that tried to fight.”





	I’d risk it all

**Author's Note:**

> This is an unedited work that I wrote over a handful of classes. Constructive criticism is welcome.

Bill’s hands shook slightly as he walked back to the Neibolt house. Not out of fear but out of anger. If they didn’t care about anyone other than themselves then that was fine by him. He’d stop It on his own. He picked up one of the iron spikes that had fallen off of the fence on his way past; if it was good enough for Beverly, it was good enough for him. Maybe It hated iron or something. 

It was easy enough to get down the well and suddenly he found himself in a sewer tunnel. Not afraid but slightly uneasy, Bill realised that he was in It’s territory now; even more than the rest of Derry.

A sudden movement to his right caught his attention. Something small and yellow was running away from him and deeper into the sewer. “G-G-Georgie?” He called out desperately. He was only greeted with the sounds of splashing as the figure moved further away from him. “G-Georgie?” He tried again.

“Bill?” His little brothers voice called back.

“Georgie?” He was running now, always just catching a trace of yellow before it turned a corner and disappeared again. He had lost track of the turns he had made or how long he had been running but that didn’t matter, his brother was there, just out of sight, and if Bill was just a little bit faster than he could catch him and bring him home and everything would be the way it was.

Suddenly Bill turned a corner and emerged into a vast cavern with some kind of horrific mountain made of children’s clothes and toys in the centre. He looked up and gasped in horror, the were bodies, dozens upon dozens of them, floating lazily around the mountain. It was too far for him to see but he suspected that if he could see their faces he would see Betty Ripsom and Patrick Hockstetter and all of the other missing kids.

“Bill?” He turned and gasped. Georgie was standing about six feet from him. His raincoat was covered in grime and his face and hands were covered with dirt. Most hauntingly of all, his right arm was torn off just below the shoulder. But none of that mattered because Georgie was there smiling at him. “Heya Billy. You found me.”

“G-G-Georgie?” He asked.

“Yeah Bill. I got washed down here with that storm. It blew my boat away and I couldn’t keep up with it. Don’t be mad.”

“I’m n-not m-m-mad. Of c-course I’m n-n-not. She w-was fast?”

“I lost it. It was so fast.” Something in that tripped Bill up.

“S-she Georgie. You always c-c-call boast s-she.”

Before he could turn his spike around to the thing that was pretending to be his brother, Georgie began to shake violently. It’s arms and legs started to get longer, It’s yellow raincoat became a white clown suit, and It’s face elongated and changed into the face of the clown that had attacked them. “Hiya Billy,” It said in It’s regular rasping voice.

He felt It’s hand close around his throat lifting him into the air. He struggled but it was fruitless. “I-I-I’m not af-f-fraid of you,” he said defiantly, still struggling to get loose. It took a deep breath, almost like It was smelling him, then It grimaced, like what it smelled was something awful.

“You’re right,” It rasped, “but you will be.” Then, It began to open It’s mouth. Further than a human mouth, further and further until the top of It’s face had folded back on itself. Rows upon rows of pointed teeth, like shark teeth, filled It’s mouth. And deeper than that, down It’s throat, an orange light shone. It seemed to draw Bill in and for a fraction of a second he thought he could hear voices. But then...

...

Richie had been agitated for the past two days. He couldn’t sit still, couldn’t focus of his games, and it was all Bill’s fault. He wasn’t sure how but it was, because he had missed Bill more in those past days than he had in the two weeks beforehand. Something was pulling him towards Bill. Twice he had tried to walk to the arcade and accidentally ended up on Bill’s street, halfway to his house before he remembered that they weren’t talking and that he was supposed to have gone in the opposite direction. But he didn’t suspect anything sinister until the third day, when he went to open the door of the arcade and saw the missing persons poster taped to the door.

There was Bill on the door. His name, his age, his photo, and the last seen date was two days before. Richie couldn’t breathe, something had been pulling him to Bill’s house, something wanted him to know that Bill was missing. It wanted Richie to know what happened to people that tried to fight.

He tore the poster off of the door and set off at a run towards Bill’s house. He needed to see for himself that Bill was missing. He barely even spoke to Bill’s parents as he made his way up to his room. He threw open the door and there it was, written in the blood that only kids could see right across the far wall, ‘You die if you try.’ It wanted them to know It had Bill. It wanted them to know that this was their fault for not helping Bill destroy It when they had the chance.

...

Ben was his first contact. Bev was out of the question, no telling whether her dad would be home or how he would react to a boy asking for Beverly. Mike was too far away to get too, even with his bike. Eddie’s mom wouldn’t let him go outside if she knew any of his friends would be there. And Stan was even more adamant that ignoring It was the right path than Richie was. Ben would at least listen.

But when he got to Ben’s house and climbed the stairs to his room, he was met not only by Ben sitting at the desk with his Derry history books but also with Bev leaning out the window with a lit cigarette dangling idly from her fingers. The radio was on and if Richie wasn’t mistaken, that was New Kids on the Block playing. They both turn to look at him when they hear the door bang open and suddenly he can’t speak. He wordlessly pulls the poster from his pocket and throws it on the bed so they can both see Bill’s phot smiling up at them from the still white paper, not yet old enough to yellow like Betty’s or Patrick’s.

Beverly is the first one to meet his eyes and he can see what she’s thinking, that they need to avenge Bill and kill this motherfucking clown.

...

They called Eddie from Ben’s phone and Richie thanked the lord silently that he didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t want to say any more than he had to; because it was his fault. If Richie hadn’t put his own safety above that of every present and future child in Derry then Bill wouldn’t have been taken.

Stan was just as easy to convince. Say what you would about their bravery but nobody could doubt Stan, Richie, and Eddie’s loyalty. They rode over to his house and only had to show him the poster before he grabbed his own bike and started off towards Neibolt. But he was stopped by Bev and Eddie, they still had one more loser left to talk to.

...

Mike was the hardest to convince. His grandfather didn’t approve of social calls on the phone in his office and that was the only phone in the house, so the losers had to ride out of town and all the way to the farm to even talk to Mike. But then they had to convince Mike to come with them. He was more hesitant than Stan or Eddie, he was still worried about getting hurt. “But what good would it do?” He argued, “Bill’s probably...” he faltered when he saw the look on Richie’s face, “He’s probably not coming back,” he finished lamely.

“No,” Richie said, “but the son of a bitch that killed him will. And It knows we know about It. One of us is probably next. It’ll probably keep taking us until we’re all dead anyway. So, do you want to wait until comes to your house or ambushes you on a delivery, or do you want to go down fighting.”

“Fighting,” said Bev, placing he hand out in front of her.

“Fighting,” said Ben, placing his hand on hers.

“Fighting,” said Eddie, throwing his non-broken arm out to join the others.

“Fighting,” Stan’s voice broke slightly and his hand joined to the rest.

“Fighting,” said Richie confidently, add his hand too.

Mike looked around at each of them in turn before he added his hand to the circle. “Fighting,” he said, “for Bill.” Riche met his eyes and smiled.

...

Aside from the weird gun Mike took from the abattoir and a coil of rope from his shed, the losers had nothing when the rode up to Neibolt. Richie tried to break a bottle like in the movies but he broke too much, rendering it useless.

“We stay together,” Bev said firmly as they walked under the doorframe. “I could hurt It when we were together, so make sure you can see everyone and there’s nothing like a door that could seperate us. We get kill that thing, find Bill’s... we find Bill and we leave.” With that she made her way to the basement.

When they reached the well Richie could only watch as Mike and Beverly set up the rope that would take them straight to It’s fucking lair. All he could think about was grabbing Mike’s gun and putting a perfect hole in the clowns forehead. It was going to pay for what It had done to Bill.

...

All he could do was listen as Bowers beat Mike up at the edge of the well. Snatches of conversation floated down, distorted by the stone walls of the well. “You know,” Henry was saying, “I still get sad when I go past that pile of ashes. Sad, because I couldn’t do it myself.” Richie was ready to climb up the inside of the well and teach Bowers a thing or two about what happened when you badmouthed Richie’s friends but before he could do more than shift his weight from his hands to his legs when something large and fleshy fell past their tunnel. Something large, fleshy, and shaped like Henry Bowers.

“Holy shit,” was all he could say when Mike climbed down the rope to join them. Mike gave him a wry smile before reloading his gun and taking a step into the sewer tunnel.

...

Everyone else was crowding around Stan, trying to calm him down after his encounter with the woman from the painting. He was crying and spluttering that “you made me go into Neibolt.” That was when he heard it, from just around the corner. A pitiful groaning noise that was distorted by the sewer tunnels but was undeniably Bill’s. Forgetting It and the other losers and the promises they made to each other to not leave the group, he began walking towards the noise.

...

He was the first thing Richie saw as he entered the cavern. Bill was lying on his back at the foot of the mountain of remains from previous kids. Forgetting that It might be anywhere around him, Richie rushed over to his friend.

Bill’s face was crusted with blood and one of his eyes was swollen shut. The other eye fluttered under his eyelid like Bill was dreaming. His breath came in wheezes and one of his legs was twisted at an unnatural angle. But he was alive. “Bill,” Richie called, shaking his shoulder. His head lolled sickening and Richie stared shaking harder. “Bill,” he tried again, his voice raising in pitch as he began to panic.

“Ruh-Ruh-Richie?” Bill’s voice was soft and distant, but he was answering. 

“Y-Yeah Bill. It’s m-me,” Richie replied, stuttering almost as hard as Bill. “Can you stand? The others are here and we’re gonna get that son of a bitch that did this.

Richie wasn’t sure how he expected Bill to act, but he was surprised when the taller boy started struggling and trying to get to his feet. “N-n-no Richie, you c-can’t. I-I-it’ll get you. I-It’ll k-kill you. I-It’ll k-kill us all.”

Richie placed his hands on Bill’s shoulders to try to calm him down, “No It won’t. We’ll kill it first.” Something nagged at the back of his mind, no matter what happened, Bill wouldn’t try to run from It, not after what It had done to Georgie. Something wasn’t right. “Bill?” He asked hesitantly, “is Georgie up there?” He gestured to the floating bodies.

Bill was still struggling in Richie’s grip, “I d-don’t know. D-Does it m-m-matter? We’ll b-be up there s-s-soon if we st-t-tay here. We n-n-need to g-go.” Something was definitely wrong.

Richie struggled to keep his voice even as he drew Mike’s gun from his belt. He could vaguely hear the others enter the cavern behind him, they called out to him and Bill. He cocked the gun and place it slowly and deliberately on Bill’s forehead. “The real Bill,” he said too quietly for the others, who were beginning to shout at him to stop, to hear, “would have climbed that mountain with one arm ripped off to make absolutely sure that his brother wasn’t up there. And he would never,” he pushed the gun harder into Bill’s forehead, “leave other people to die for his own safety.” And with that, Richie pulled the trigger and Bill’s head fell back to the ground, his unseeing eyes looked up to the swirling bodies above him.

Someone screamed behind him. It was high and shrill, Bev or Stan maybe, and someone else ran towards him. He felt a sharp blow knock him to the ground and looked up to see Eddie, transformed with rage, standing over him with both hands curled into fists. He raised his arm to block Eddie’s next blow when Bev screamed again and both boys twisted to look at what she was seeing.

Bill’s body was shaking, vibrating faster than was natural. His arms and legs were growing longer, his clothes were turning into a white clown suit, and his face was distorting horrifyingly into that of the clown that had terrorised them all summer. Richie felt Eddie scramble off of him and back away from the clown leering at them.

“Where’s the real Bill you creepy ass motherfucker?” Richie shouted at the clown that was starting to stalk towards his friends.

“You want to see him?” It asked, “Take a look.”

It snapped its fingers and one of the bodies began to float down. It was different to the others though. Instead of lying on its back this body was floating in an upright position with its head tilted towards the ceiling and its eyes open but blank. It had auburn hair and was wearing a white shirt with blue sleeves. 

Bill stopped descending about ten feet from the ground. His face would have been peaceful if it wasn’t for the unnatural colour of his eyes or the parlour of his sunken cheeks. Richie could hear someone crying behind him, maybe it was Beverly, she’d always had a shine for Bill. Or maybe it was Eddie, he had known Bill longer than any of the other losers. Maybe it was even Richie, he wasn’t sure. Not able to think about anything other than the clouded eyes of the auburn haired boy floating above him, Richie hefted a baseball bat from the mountain of belongings. “Welcome to The Losers Club asshole!” He screamed as he swung the bat towards the clowns head.

...

It was chaos. Richie, Mike, Ben, and Stan were fighting It but they were losing. Each time one of them was free to land a hit It turned on them and became their worst fear in turn. But they had to keep fighting because they were the only thing separating It and Bev and Eddie as Bev hefted Eddie onto her shoulders and helped him guide Bill to the ground. But whatever they tried, Bill wasn’t waking up from the trance. Richie could hear Bev pleading with him, “Please please Bill, we need you to wake up. How do we wake you up? Are you in there? Bill?”

Things were getting desperate. It had knocked Stan down and he was having trouble getting back up. Bev was still shaking Bill and Eddie was trying to act as a guard but he was trembling from head to toe and the iron spike he was holding was almost as long as his body. If It charged at him he didn’t stand a chance. “Bill?” Bev tried again and suddenly Richie had an idea. It made him want to scream but it may be their only chance.

“Bev,” he called out as he swung his bat down on the charred hands reaching for Mike from out of It’s mouth. “Kiss him.”

“What?” Bev asked indignantly with her hands still on Bill’s shoulders.

“Kiss him. Like in the fairy tales. True loves kiss breaks the enchanted sleep and all the rest of that bullshit.” Richie swung the bat for the clown’s head but It’s mouth opened up too far and bit the bat in half.

“But I don’t love him,” Beverly called back desperately. And as ridiculous as it is to be thinking about while he is fighting a shapeshifting evil clown, Richie’s heart leaps. But that does mean that Beverly’s true loves kiss is out, which leaves...

“Bev,” he called again, throwing a plank of wood that was resting by his feet to her, “swap with me.” And with that he ran as fast as he could to where Bill was still hovering three feet from the ground. “Okay Bill,” he muttered quietly enough that only Eddie and Bill could hear, “I’m hoping that this will work. If it does, just don’t call me a fairy.” And Richie leaned in to press a kiss to Bill’s frozen lips.

The kiss lasted for maybe a second but it stretched out in an infinity for Richie. It didn’t feel like he thought kissing Bill would feel. Bill’s lips were cold and limp, and they felt stiff, like rigor mortis. But as he kissed them Richie thought about how he felt about Bill. About how he always knew when Bill walked into a rom, about how he missed Bill even when he was mad with him, about how he had a weird twisting feeling in his gut when he saw Bill without a shirt at the quarry or when he had just gotten off of Silver and his hair was sticking to his forehead. And he thought about how Bill could just make him feel more than the other losers could. Bill could make him more happy or sad or angry or content than anyone else in the world. He thought about how much he loved Bill, and he didn’t care who knew it.

For a second after he pulled away the thought that the kiss hadn’t worked. But then the smoke over Bill’s eyes cleared and he looked at Richie like he had hung the moon. “Ruh-Richie?” He asked in whisper, bringing his hand up to touch Richie’s face like he needed reassurance that he was real.

“Right here Big Bill,” he whispered back. But before he could say any of the things that had been tormenting him since he found the poster on the door of the arcade, someone screamed. They turned and saw that even with five of the seven losers fighting, It was winning. Ben was on It’s back, Eddie and Stan were each swinging from one of It’s arms, and Bev and Mike were stabbing It with the iron spikes but It was still winning. Richie silently handed Mike’s gun to Bill and hefted a second baseball bat from the pile. Bill smiled at him slightly and together they ran for the clown.

...

It had Richie. He could feel It’s arm pushing on his windpipe and he was struggling to speak. It was offering the other losers the chance to leave him in exchange for their own safety. “Go,” he was trying to call to them, “please go, just leave me.” They all stood around him, not moving forwards or backwards until Bill stepped forward.

“I t-told you Richie. I t-told you that if w-we let It live It would t-take one of us. It t-t-took m-me and n-now It’s got you. S-so I g-g-guess that it’s time that I return the favour,” he took the iron spike that Beverly was holding and stabbed it into the clown’s eye. “Welcome to the losers club asshole.”

...

They were winning now. It couldn’t keep up with all seven of them. When it became a leper to scare Eddie, with his friends encouragement Eddie managed to strike back. When it became Bev’s father they were all behind her as she drove her spike into it’s forehead. And they all screamed to Bill to pull the trigger to Mike’s gun to deal the final blow to the monster. Parts of It’s face began to flake off and It ran backwards to another well that seemed to run to a deeper part of the sewer.

Richie chased It to the edge of the well but It had already disappeared into the blackness. He stared down into the depths of the well for awhile longer until he felt an arm wind around his shoulders. He looked over and saw Bill looking back at him, a new softness in his eyes when he looked at Richie. It was so different to the anger Richie had seen during the fight. It suddenly occurred to Richie that if either of them had died during the fight with It then the last thing that he had said to Bill was that he was a loser and was going to get himself killed. Bill reached out his other hand and brushed Richie’s cheek lightly, it was then that Richie realised he was crying.

“You could have died Bill,” he whispered, “you could have died and the last thing I would have said to you was that you were a loser.”

“Y-You could have d-died too Richie, but you didn’t. And n-neither did I. We’re b-b-both okay.” And then Bill was kissing him and it was nothing like the first time. Bill’s lips were warm and soft and Bill was kissing him back with a desperate fervour that had Richie gripping his waist to keep them both balanced. Bill’s hands moved to grip Richie’s shoulders but before they could a loud voice interrupted them.

“My god you two, get a room.” Everyone simultaneously turned to look at Stan, who shrugged slightly and said “well, Richie’s mouth was occupied so someone else had to make the unnecessary comment.” Everyone laughed and took a turn to hug Bill before Richie took his hand and led him back through the sewer.

...

It took them weeks to convince Bill to tell them about what it was like in that trance. Long enough that by the time they all went back to the quarry and listened to Bill’s story, Beverly was all packed up for Portland and ready to leave Derry forever. Bill and Richie had spent the previous weeks sneaking around, avoiding Vic and Belch and parents and other kids who might want to hurt them. There were a lot of stolen kisses in alleyways behind shops and at the quarry and in the safety of one of the losers bedrooms. Even Eddie didn’t care, one of them needed AIDS to start with before they could contract it from each other. Besides, none of the losers were keen for the new couple to do that in their bedrooms.

Richie held Bill’s hand as he tells them how it felt. “I th-th-thought I w-was dead,” he said quietly, refusing to meet anyone else’s eyes, “at least, th-that’s what it f-felt like. I saw us b-back in the sewer. But w-we were o-older. Like, our p-p-parents ages.”

“What were we all doing there?” Beverly asked quietly.

“I d-don’t know,” Bill responded, “I j-just remember how we f-f-felt. We were terrified. I d-don’t think I could f-forget that.”

No one said anything for a few minutes but they all knew what the others were thinking. If they were all back there then It must have come back too. It must not have died in the sewer at all and It was just hibernating one day, in twenty-seven years It would come back.

Bill broke the silence by grabbing a broken shard of glass and standing up. “Sw-swear it,” he said, looking each of them in the face, “s-swear that if It ever comes back, w-we’ll come back too.”

He cut his own hand first and then Richie’s. It stung but Bill squeezed his hand and Richie didn’t mind so much. Then they joined hands, Richie bled onto Eddie’s hand and Bill bled onto his. Bill held his hand for a couple of seconds after everyone let go.

...

They were the only two left in the meadow in the end. Stan had been the first to break the circle and Richie somehow felt that his action would be significant in the future, but not yet. Eddie was next to leave and again Richie had the impression that this would be significant somehow in the future. In the end, only he and Bill were left.

“You know,” he said quietly as he grasped Bill’s hand to pull him up from where he was sitting, “I didn’t mean what I said in that fight.” Bill opened his mouth to accept Richies apology but Richie continued before he could, “I never felt like a loser when I was with you.”


End file.
